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- Lord of the Flies: the plot
Lord of the Flies: the plot
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William Golding's novel follows a group of British schoolboys stranded on an island during a war. Without adults, their society falls apart.
Order
After a plane crash, Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell, which Ralph blows to call the boys together. Ralph is elected leader.
Jack, leader of a choir, wants to hunt. A signal fire is lit using Piggy's glasses.
The youngest boys ('littluns') fear a beast.
Jack, leader of a choir, wants to hunt. A signal fire is lit using Piggy's glasses.
The youngest boys ('littluns') fear a beast.
Breakdown
Jack's hunters let the fire go out just as a ship passes.
Jack breaks away and forms his own tribe, painting faces and hunting pigs.
They put a pig's head on a stick as an offering to the beast: the 'Lord of the Flies'.
Simon discovers that the 'beast' is a dead parachutist, but when he runs to tell the others, they kill him in a frenzied dance.
Jack breaks away and forms his own tribe, painting faces and hunting pigs.
They put a pig's head on a stick as an offering to the beast: the 'Lord of the Flies'.
Simon discovers that the 'beast' is a dead parachutist, but when he runs to tell the others, they kill him in a frenzied dance.
Destruction and rescue
Jack's tribe steals Piggy's glasses. When Ralph and Piggy go to get them back, Roger pushes a rock that kills Piggy and smashes the conch.
Jack's tribe hunts Ralph and sets the island on fire.
A naval officer, seeing the smoke, arrives. Ralph weeps for the loss of innocence.
Jack's tribe hunts Ralph and sets the island on fire.
A naval officer, seeing the smoke, arrives. Ralph weeps for the loss of innocence.
Why is the rescue at the end ironic?
- The officer is shocked by the boys' savagery.
- But he is himself part of a war between adults.
- So the 'civilised' adult world is also violent.
Answer: The adult who rescues them is fighting a war, so adult society is no less savage.
Crash, conch and election, fire and the beast, fire goes out, Jack's tribe, the pig's head, Simon killed, Piggy killed and conch broken, Ralph hunted, rescue by a naval officer.
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